1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology to transfer data between an external control apparatus and an image capturing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image capturing apparatuses such as a digital camera or digital video camera that record a still image, audio, and a moving image on a recording medium generally use a small memory that is detachable from the camera such as a CF (compact flash (TM)) or an SD card, etc.
Also, some image capturing apparatuses have two or more recording media, and a user can freely switch the destination recording medium and record a file of a captured image data. There are also image capturing apparatuses that can capture an image without the need for the user to be conscious of the remaining capacity of the recording medium designated to be the recording destination, by automatically switching the recording destination of a captured image data file to another recording medium loaded into the image capturing apparatus, in the case that the capacity of the destination recording medium is insufficient.
Also, when a moving image is captured and recorded, there is a method of storing the captured moving image data in a flash memory loaded into the image capturing apparatus, and recording it on a recording medium connected to the image capturing apparatus from the flash memory after image capturing is complete. However, because the upper limit of the size of the moving image data that can be recorded using this method is restricted by the upper limit of the capacity of the flash memory loaded into the image capturing apparatus, a large number of image capturing apparatuses adopt a method that executes image capturing while sequentially recording captured moving image data in the recording medium.
For an image capturing apparatus that automatically switches the recording medium of the recording destination in the aforementioned manner in the case that the capacity of the recording medium is insufficient, technology in which the recording medium from which moving image data is to be read out is automatically switched to during playback, and in which playback is continuously executed has been proposed (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open 2001-086462).
On the other hand, there is a method in which an image capturing apparatus is connected to a computer by a cable such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) or IEEE 1394, and an image file captured by the image capturing apparatus is transferred to the computer (or to a digital device that has a recording medium). There is also a method in which the recording medium is disconnected from the camera main body and connected to a computer, and information is loaded in from the recording medium as an external recording apparatus of the computer.
According to the aforementioned Japanese
Patent Laid-Open 2001-086462, it is possible to divide image data and record it in a plurality of recording media. However, transfer to a computer of image data divided into a plurality is not considered. In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open 2001-086462, there are a plurality of files in a recording medium of an image capturing apparatus for divided image data, and these plurality of files are transferred as-is to a computer. Therefore, operation is troublesome because the files must be handled as individual files even if the user is aware that each image file browsed on a computer is part of a file of a sequence of captured images.